Vinson Expedition Dispatch
December 4, 2010 – Weathering the Storm
Experienced climbers John and Kate
(Photo taken on Aconcagua 2009)
What do you do when you’re weathering a storm at over 12,000 feet elevation in Antarctica? Yesterday I mentioned that the key word for us is cozy. You can’t move around a lot, you have to take care of yourself, keep calories coming in, keep eating and of course keep drinking a lot of liquids. We need to keep organized. Knowing that we have to continue weathering the storm, we have to get outside and work hard to build walls around our tents. We have to do our cooking in our Pash shelter when the winds are too high.
Remember that it is light 24 hours a day here. The schedule, when you sleep, when you work, whatever activity you have to do, is not dependent upon the sun. Especially now that we have cloud cover overhead and we don’t have the effect of the shadow behind the mountain walls any longer.
We have had some change in our weather. When I was out at about 6:30 am this morning, I saw layers in the clouds and lenticular clouds above me. These clouds indicate that there are very high winds aloft and that this storm is still moving with great force.
But we are in the cozy cave: Kate, John, Flat Stanley, Pachi and myself. It takes work to take care of ourselves, but we are a team and we are enjoying it. There are a lot of laughs. You should see how we are dressed when we go outside to cut our walls for our tents. We are wearing our full down suits, our cold avenger masks and our goggles, of course. We are a pretty interesting sight. Our weather report indicates that the storm is going to last for a couple of more days, at least. Our mission right now is to continue to take care of ourselves, be patient, wait for our shot at Mount Vinson and enjoy the experience of being together in this wild and powerful environment of Antarctica.
